Holidays 2012 Top Ten

10.  Making hats with Sara and Mimi.

9.  Eating vegan turkey.

8.  Meeting Baby Hallie.

7.  My new table.

6.  Girl's night!

Ω
5.  Girl's night!

4.  A warm fireplace on a cold, snowy Christmas Day.

3.  Chilaxin' with San Antonio friends.

2.  My mom.

1.  Celebrating five years of marriage to Chris.

Obsession

Obsession
/eb'seshen/
Noun

1.  The state of being obsessed with someone or something.
2.  An idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind.

Synonyms:

Paper Dreams

Last spring, I agreed to host a table at a women's event.  In my quest to host a table set apart from the usual pastels and florals, I found these adorable paper place mats with pop up details. I was instantly inspired by the idea of paper.

Many, many hours later, I had handmade paper napkin rings and vaseful of handmade paper flowers to match the paper place mats.

This Christmas, I again decided to decorate with paper.  After about a month of folding, I was able to  dress the Sias Christmas tree with my very own handmade paper ornaments and a matching paper star.

Paper really is a great medium.  It can be folded to look soft or rigid, flat or multi-dimensional. It comes in different textures, weights, colors, and patterns.  It is (relatively) cheap and is readily available.  I love the natural, simple look of paper.

A few years ago, I watched an awesome documentary about modern paper folders called Between the Folds.  The artists and scientists in the film create spectacular things out of paper, and they speak with passion about their creases and the forms they create.  While my paper creations are nowhere near the complexity and artistry documented in the film, I really enjoyed my paper Christmas tree this year.  

 

Grandmimi

My Grandmimi, Ms. Hallie Whitten, passed away this morning.  She was the eldest of four generations of women pictured below:

While the loss of a loved one is always sad, it's comforting to know that my Grandmimi lived 99 full years of life.  She had 7 children, 20+ grandchildren, 30+ great grandchildren, and a number of great, great grandchildren.  She lived at home up until the final weeks of her life.  Her mind did not fail her and in the end, she did not suffer from chronic illness or endure great pain.  She simply went to sleep and died in peace.  The next memory she will have is Jesus calling her home.

My Grandmimi's deep love for Jesus and her resulting sweet spirit left a lasting impression on my family, as evidenced by messages my family members posted today:

"My heart is heavy with the loss of my sweet Mimi but the promise of the great reunion is ours! What a day of rejoicing that will be! Those who have heard me speak of her know what a treasure she was to all who knew her."

 

"What a long, faithful life she led. She was an inspiration in devotion to us all and will be dearly missed. . . . Everyone that knew her knew she had a special relationship with Christ; a connection that can only come from years of belief and prayer. "

"She was the sweetest person in the world . . . .  She had the biggest heart and was truly an example of what God wants us to be like. We love you Grandmimi."  

Two days ago, my cousin gave birth to a baby girl and named her Hallie.  Two days after baby Hallie entered the world, her namesake went to sleep.  The birth of one Hallie and the death of another within a few short days is  a bittersweet reminder of the inevitible circle of life in this world of sin.  Someday, however, we will meet Jesus face to face and leave this sinful world behind us.  When that happens, I will proudly introduce you to my Grandmimi. 

To read more about my Grandmimi, click here and here.  To read about my Great Grandma Lair, who passed away at the age of 99 about six months ago, click here, and here.   

Bowling Fail

Tonight I went bowling.  It was a last minute decision, and I didn't have socks.  As it turned out, the socks were the least of my worries.  Take note girls: Never try to bowl in a denim pencil skirt because no matter how you roll it, hike it, or stretch it, you cannot achieve the range of movement necessary to effectively throw a bowling bowl and at the same time maintain your modesty and dignity.  It was a bowling fail.

They See Me Rollin...

They hatin,

Patrollin they tryin to catch me ridin dirty.

Let the Holidays Begin!

Sunday, November 25, 9:25 p.m.:  Thanksgiving weekend is hours from over.  Thanksgiving day was spent in San Antonio with the Fernandes family.  They contributed this handsome vegetarian turkey to our potluck dinner.  It looked great, and tasted even better!

After dinner, I played X-Box Kinect for the first time.  X-Box Kinnect is similar to Wii but without the handheld game controllers. After 30 mintues of playing, I learned that I throw like a girl even when the throwing is simulated.  At least I gave everyone a good laugh...

Friday brought Thanksgiving number two, this time with family.  And what a lovely family we are.

Saturday was uneventful until around 3:00 p.m., when my aunt pulled a table out of the garage and set it up in a sunny spot on the back porch of the farm house.  We covered the table with a sheet, pulled up a bench and some chairs, and sat down to feast on left overs:

This lovely picture was taken before the bees arrived.  I think the bees were attracted by our sweet tea. My dad, in an attempt to deter the bees, lit a small fire in a nearby barbecue grill and placed some dry leaves on the fire.  At first, a small stream of smoke filled the air and drove away most of the bees.  When the leaves burned up and the smoke died down, however, the bees returend.  My dad responded by adding even more leaves to the barbecue grill.  Within moments, a large cloud of smoke consumed our table.  What followed was a comical ten seconds during which everyone made various exclamations and tried to hide their faces; everyone except for my grandma, who appeared unaffected, and my aunt, who stood at the end of the porch yelling commands about turning our heads away from the barbecue grill.

Saturday evening, Chris and I returned to my cousin's house to discover that while we were feasting on smokey leftovers, Doug and/or my Cousin's dog ate two thirds of a toddler sized dress.  I suspected that Doug ate the dress because Chris found a clump of dress-colored threads stuck to one of his paws.  Doug is proving to be quite the scavenger.

Sunday morning, Chris and I drove to Buda, Texas, to look at a car listed for sale on Craigslist.  Prior attempts to purchase a car in the Valley via Craigslist were unsuccessful because apparently, most Craigslist users in the Valley are very shady people.  Luckily, Craigslist users in Buda are much more reliable and as a result, we are now the proud owners of a new vehicle.

Driving our new vehicle home was a blast, or it was a blast until Doug began vomiting dress colored liquids.   This confirmed my haunch that Doug is a dress eater. After a visit to the only 24 hour animal hospital in the Valley, we arrived home completely exhausted.

In between the vegetarian turkey, the smokey bee dinner, the new car, and my sick, dress-eating dog, I would say I had a pretty average holiday.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Life in the Valley

It is mid-November.  The forecasted high for the next four days in degrees Fahrenheit is 72, 72, 77, and 82.  This is why I have an orange tree.  This also creates winter Texans, some of whom live in the nicest mobile home parks I have ever seen.  

While driving home from work, I saw a truck with a magnetic sign advertising a concrete company.  The company's specialties?  Sidewalks, Drive-ways, Additions, and Remodelation.  Yes, someone ordered, and someone else printed, a sign using the word remodelation. 

I finally saw the Rio Grande.  To see the river, I had to walk out on an international bridge because the view was otherwise obstructed by a tall, thick concrete fence that cost $1 million a mile to construct.  In San Antonio, the river was lined with expensive homes, restaurants, lush vegetation, and sidewalks.  

Yesterday, I visited my neighbors at their house for the first time.  They invited me in and then gave me a tour of the entire house, including the master bedroom and bathroom.

The majority of my driving occurs at no more than 40 miles per hour, even when the speed limit exceeds 40 miles per hour.

My car insurance rate went up after I moved here.  Apparently, car theft is popular when an international border is only 11 miles away.  

I receive more Spanish TV stations than English TV stations.  Some of the Spanish stations are picked up from Mexico.  News broadcasts in Mexico are. . . tailored to please men.  Mexican TV programming in general is . . . tailored to please men.  

I tried Pan de Campo for the first time.  It's yummy.  I'll share some with you if you're ever in town.

Clowning Around

King William

King William: the awesome neighborhood in which I used to live; the neighborhood that has more character than words or pictures can capture; a place you must live to understand.

My home.

 The neighbors.

Nature.

Restaurants, restaurants, restaurants.

My homing beacon, the Tower of the Americas.

Sights seen via a short bike ride.

Cheers King William!  Thank you for so many great memories!

Before and After

This is where I used to live.  It was beautiful with or without all of my treasures.  

Showers of Blessings

Today makes two weeks that Chris and I have lived in our new house in our new hometown.  Getting here was no small feat.  There were uncertainties about work and a home purchase.  On Tuesday, October 12, we packed our final possessions into a moving truck with no place to take them.  This was a low point - the kind that tests a marriage and patience and short tempers.  Then, this week happened.  I started my new job, Chris and I closed on our house, and Chris found work in our new hometown

Chris attributed our good fortune to the Dallas Cowboys win last Sunday.  His reasoning: He always has a good week after the Dallas Cowboys win.  I respectfully disagree.  There is someone greater than the Dallas Cowboys watching over us, guiding us, and blessing us.  Thankfully, His blessings do not depend on the Dallas Cowboys.

Moving - The End

Chris and I arrived at our new home four days ago.  We unpacked the final boxes last night, and we are already feeling quite settled.  Getting to this point, however, was nothing short of eventful...

1.  Chris was summoned for jury duty six days before we had to vacate our apartment in San Antonio.  He was subsequently selected to serve on the jury and was unavailable for three days.  Perfect timing.

2.  I rented a U-Haul truck for our move.  When Chris and I picked up the truck at the rental facility, I noticed that a lot of the trucks displayed messages about using the truck for "Your Moving Adventure" underneath happy pictures of animals and nature.  While the slogan and images evoked ideas of fun and pleasant memories, the act of moving does not actually create very many fun or pleasant memories.

3.  Moving is a beast when you have appliances and big furniture.  I now know that moving a couple of appliances and a few big pieces of furniture is a lot more work than moving twice as many boxes and small pieces of furniture.   Thank you so much to Ed, Felipe, and Justin for helping Chris and I load everything.  

4.  I loved my apartment in San Antonio so much that I became emotional when it was time to say good-bye and shut the door one last time.  In my defense, I believe that my emotional state was also affected by the temporary homelessness that followed.

5.  Regarding temporary homelessness, moving is a lot less stressful if you know when you can move into your new home before you have to leave your old home.  Praise God for good friends who shared their home for a few days and an enterprising young man who gave Chris and I a "cash payment discount" of 50% on late charges when we returned our moving truck two days late. 

6.  Renting a 26-foot moving truck with an auto transport trailer should probably be against the law, or at least against U-Haul company policy.  After four days with an oversized truck and trailer, I give you the "Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Rent a 26-Foot Moving Truck with Auto Transport Trailer":

(10) A 26 foot truck is the biggest truck you can rent from U-Haul and therefore costs the most money.

(9) Renting a 26 foot truck means that you have enough treasures to fill it, which is entirely too many treasures.

(8) Parking on the street is really your only option, and it requires half a block of empty space and no overhanging trees.

(7) Buying gas requires multiple transactions because most gas stations impose a $100 limit on each transaction.

(6) While driving, (a) the truck may leak fuel, (b) a chain on the trailer may drag the ground and create a never ending stream of sparks, and (c) these two events may occur at the same time. 

(5) The truck comes with a disclaimer that it is not waterproof, but the truck is too deep to examine for possible leaks after it is filled and it starts raining.  

(4) Backing up: The sheer size of the truck and trailer combination make it humanly impossible to simultaneously monitor both sides of the truck and remain close enough to yell directions at the driver attempting to back up  

(3) Backing up in public: Everyone offers to help, including a doped-out homeless person who stands behind the truck, yells confusing directions, and then exclaims halfway through the process that he "didn't know there was a trailer attached."

(2) Missing your exit on the freeway requires rerouting your trip instead of turning around and risking additional situations that require backing up in public.

(1) Driving the truck while towing the trailer will exhaust you mentally and physically, which leaves you in no state to unload the truck at your new home.  

Praise God for watching over Chris and I throughout our move and bringing us to our new home safe and sound.  I look forward to making new friends and memories in our new home.

Moving - Part 2

All the boxes, popping bubble wrap, and noisy rolls of packing tape have caused Doug visible anxiety.  I think he was beginning to worry that we might not take him with us.

Chris hypothesized that Doug was separated from his first family during a move, which has resulted in his current moving anxiety.  I don't know if that's true, but I do know that this has been a very stressful move for me (more on that later).  If a bad moving experience causes future anxiety, I will be a nervous wreck the next time I move.   

Apps

I'm not one to seek out the newest or coolest apps for my iPhone, but a friend recently showed me a really cool app for stitching photos together to form panoramic pictures.  My first attempt at using the app was at a women's NBA basketball game:

While this picture captures the atmosphere in an arena, all the movement going on caused my friend's head to look a bit Picasso like.  After more practice stitching photos, however, I was able to capture this pretty awesome picture of the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth:

Special thanks to Fred for showing me this cool app!  I'm lovin' it (that's a shout out to the McDonald's where I'm typing this)!

Moving - Part 1

Chris and I are in the process of moving.  The first step in our move was finding a new place to move to.  A few weeks ago, we made a last minute trip to the Valley, our future home, to look at housing options.  Because the trip was last minute, we had no choice but to take Doug with us.

We left our apartment early in the morning.  Doug was very excited when I asked him if he wanted to go for a ride as we were preparing to leave.  Doug was also very excited to be in the car with us as we traveled over 200 miles to our destination.  Doug was even more excited once we arrived in the Valley and stopped at a park to play ball.  Doug was not so happy, however, when we left him in the car as we began looking for our new home.  At first, Doug cried as we walked away from the car without him.  After a couple of stops, he realized what was going on and tried with all his might to sneak out of the car as we shut the doors.   I felt sorry for Doug, but we always made sure to crack the car windows, park in the shade, keep our stops as short as possible, and give Doug plenty of time between stops to recover from the increased anxiety he appeared to be experiencing.

Toward the end of our house hunting day, we stopped at a house and left Doug in the car.  I cracked my window and squeezed out my door while holding Doug at bay.  Chris and I entered the house with our real estate agent and began looking at the living space on the main floor.  After three or four minutes, we heard the front door open.  Chris, the real estate agent, and myself turned around at the same moment and were surprised to see the door opening by itself.  When we looked down, we saw Doug running toward us with his ears back, tongue out, and whole body wagging as if to say, "Hey guys, you forgot me in the car but aren't you proud of me for finding you."  Chris and I looked at our real estate agent in disbelief and then walked to the car.  The car doors were securely shut.  That's when we noticed the smear marks on the passenger side window likely caused by dog paws and a wet nose, and we realized that Doug squeezed his way through the crack in the passenger side window.  I imagine it looked something like this picture I took one time while I pumped gas, only with a much smaller crack in the window:

Silly Doug.  Next time we'll plan better and leave you at doggy day care.  

More Shenanigans

One of the seventh-grade pathfinders I work with broke his arm recently.  I asked him what happened the first time I saw his arm wrapped in bandages and a sling.  He glanced at me and looked down at his arm sheepishly.  Then, without a grin or any hesitation, he told me that he tried to arm wrestle Chuck Norris.  Clever Fletcher, very clever.  

Sabbath Shenanigans

Today was a great day for a picnic with the furry friend.

After the picnic, we ran into this constipated-looking Scally Wompus! 

Bad Dougie

Doug, my dog, is not allowed on the furniture.  Lately, however, he has realized that no one will punish him if he climbs on the couch after Chris and I leave for the day.  Unfortunately, he has not realized that   certain items lazily left on the couch are clear and convincing evidence of his secret behavior:

Bad Doug!  Go sit in time-out!

Surprise! It's a Meal!

I recently went to my first baby shower hosted at a Spanish church.  I'm accustomed to finger food and cake at a baby shower, so I was shocked when the hostess served everyone this:

Everyone else at the shower acted like a full meal was normal and expected at a baby shower, that is everyone except for myself and the only other blonde woman present.  For us, the meal was a delicious surprise.

Tiny Baby

Last month I saw giant elephants walking on the access road. This month, I found a tiny baby squirrel laying in the middle of a street in my neighborhood. I wonder what animal encounter next month will bring?  Please, no snakes.  

AutoMech

Chris and I went to a car museum.  There were lots of cars, and I took my time examining them until I realized that I was on one of four levels.  The museum had A LOT of cars, and one really cool pegasus.

Chris was particularly interested in the race car, probably because race car driver is his dream job, or maybe because he was examining the wall mounting system.

After looking at so many cars, I learned that old cars have cool details - lights that resemble lamps or eyes, curves galore, and tons of chrome.  I like old cars.

I also learned that the first electric cars were invented in the early 1900's and were considered vehicles for women and doctors.  They had feminine details like lace curtains and a flower vase.  I don't know why electric cars weren't popularized until the Prius, or why doctors drove feminine cars in the early 1900's.

While in the museum, I finally found a Ferrari that I would drive.  I never really like Ferraris before visiting the museum.  I think the problem was that I never saw multiple Ferraris lined up together. 

Chris found a model of his very first car.  Unfortunately, we didn't find the car he drove when I met him.  I guess a multicolored Chevy Cavalier without heating is not classic . . . yet.

Seaside

My cousin Seth called this a pigeon brothel.   I like it, so I must like pigeon brothels. 

Family Vacation

My dad's family reunited in the Seattle area last week.   My dad's family last gathered in July of 2000.

Twelve years later, our outward appearances had changed a lot!

One highlight of the reunion was a family beach walk on Marrowstone Island.  My uncle stuck his hands into the tide pools and pulled out all kinds of sea creatures.  We saw sea anemone, star fish, crabs, sea roaches, and lots of sand dollars.

While on the beach we met a very friendly little boy who told us that he had collected over 1,000 golf balls on the beach, that his dog saved him after a bicycle accident, and that he sells marshmallow roasters that he makes out of golf clubs and forks.  While shopping downtown later that day, I found this sign next to some handsomely crafted marshmallow roasters.  Maybe that little boy wasn't telling me tall tales after all.

Another highlight of the reunion was my great grandmother's memorial service, during which family members recalled funny and heartwarming stories about my great grandmother's 99 year life.  After the memorial service, my cousins and I played dodgeball in the church gym.  My dad even joined in the game, and I saw him run for the first time in years.  I think my great grandma would be happy that her family had so much fun at her memorial service.

On Saturday night, our final evening together, my cousins and I competed in a photo scavenger hunt.  When we returned from the scavenger hunt with nothing but our cameras, my grandpa told us that people didn't return from a scavenger hunt empty-handed in his day. We had to explain that our loot was digital.  After 45 minutes of heated judging by the "adults," my grandpa retreated to his office to tally the scores with his calculator.

When grandpa returned, everyone looked at him in anticipation.  With a captive audience, Grandpa paused and then said, "Now, I have just one more question..."  Grandpa!  He finally determined that my team lost the scavenger hunt by a mere 150 points.  

Overall, it was a very good family vacation.  My cousins are cool, and I hope that we don't wait another twelve years to reunite again.